I've had the same question (Why are they selling? What a depreciation!) ... but then, I can explain at least some ways it comes to be, looking at my own experience.
I've never sold a gun, but I've bought a few. So, I have a small handful (more than 1, less than 200, to place it in this thread
), and at least two of them have never been fired, or fired by me in the case of a used one. So if I *did* have to sell any, I'd honestly note their low or zero round count. A few factors that lead to this (unfortunate, or not) situation:
- The general reason, IMO: Not everyone's in the same situation, wrt places to shoot, disposable income, time division, etc. I travel a lot, have moved several times while keeping guns in storage, but since (I hope) life is long, I've bought a few because I knew the gun was a great deal and that I would down the line get the chance to shoot it.
- At least some guns are quite good looking; I'd rather spend my money on guns as sculpture than on, I dunno, a huge TV set, which has its uses but is just about guaranteed to lose value both short and long term. Would settle for just "medium sized" on the TV (maybe none for even longer, though I'm not anti-TV), to keep more in the general savings / investment kitty, as well as for other hobby interests, such as guns. Tastes vary; I think my Witness Elite Match is in the sculpture category, and my 625, too.
- I don't want to assume that guns are getting more convenient to acquire, just because some cosmetic laws don't have as much pull at the moment. There are fits and starts, but (for instance) I'd rather own a Saiga (as currently available) than have a trade-and-bluster war mean that Russian arms are put on a politically motivated list of non-importables. That sounds silly, but we in the U.S. don't get Norinco imports ... My Saiga's been shot a few times, and will more later. It works and is fun, can tell you that!
- If you live in a city or suburbia, shooting is more complicated than stepping onto the back porch (which is the lucky case for some of my friends and relatives
). Getting to a range or other appropriate place isn't necessarily a huge burden in the places I've lived, but it's an excursion. I'd rather have a few guns on hand when I go shooting to enjoy learning their feel and operation, even if that means spreading the ammo costs among them.
- Some people (I'm not one) enjoy the novelty of different guns enough that a hundred rounds or a few hundred satisfies one itch, but inspires the next acquisition, or they just enjoy the horse-trading aspect.
- Ammo is expensive. Enough so that when I go to the range, I tend to shoot slowly, and a lot of .22, while going easy on larger calibers.
- I can't prove the future, but optimistically, I'd like to one day bequeath my guns to interesting friends and offspring (or other relatives). So, akin to the "sculpture" idea above, there are guns that I've had in mind for their aesthetics and IMO long-term worth at least as much as the kick I get out of shooting them.
- Life gets in the way
Shooting's fun, but so are eating, traveling, reading, and other things. I'd rather have a gun and be unable to shoot it on a given occasion than wish I had one when it was needed, or find that buying it is out of the current budget.
timothy